


Expectations (weigh on me)

by starkboi



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
Genre: Established Relationship, Flash Thompson Has A Spider-Man Stan Account, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spoilers, also my d&d knowledge is showing, ffh didn't give me nearly enough, i love these two so much, marvelbingo2019, thanks critical role
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 18:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19469971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkboi/pseuds/starkboi
Summary: They're back from their disaster of a school trip and Peter's feeling defeated about his own foolish mistakes, Ned has a different perspective.





	Expectations (weigh on me)

**Author's Note:**

> this contains spoilers for spider-man: far from home, so please don't read if you're not down for that.
> 
> here's some soft peter/ned content for y'all since FFH didn't feed my hungry heart enough. it also fulfills the peter/ned square on my marvel bingo card.
> 
> enjoy!
> 
> title is from survivor's guilt by coma cinema.

Ned dumps his entire loot bag of foreign candies and snacks onto Peter's already messy bed. The brightly colored packages littered with foreign languages in bold lettering has Peter's head spinning.

They sit close together on the bed, sorting through which one's look the most appetizing, and putting them into the try first pile. Peter's bruises have healed considerably in a week's time, but he's still sore across most of his torso, and he holds back the grimace that wants to come across his face as he reaches for one of the treats from Venice.

"These look good," Peter says, showing the package to Ned who eagerly opens it and gives Peter one of the tiny hard candies, it's bright yellow and resembles a slice of lemon. They both pop them into their mouths and watch for each other's reaction.

Peter squishes his face up almost immediately, the sour acridness hitting his taste buds and making his mouth water, "God, it's like a yellow starburst times a thousand," Peter mumbles around the candy in his mouth.

Ned sucks happily on his, "I kinda like it," he replies, and Peter can only handle it for a few more seconds before spitting it into the emergency trashcan they have on hand.

"So Venice hard candy is a no from me," Peter states, and shoves aside the rest of the candies that fell out of that package.

"Let's try the ones from London," Ned says next.

It's something chocolate-ty this time, and Peter actually finds it edible, and quiet enjoyable. Although, it’s pretty hard to mess up chocolate for him, they've got that flavor down.

Ned is scrolling through his Instagram next to him, munching happily on the chocolates, and only stopping to click onto Flash's livestream when the notification pops up.

" _No you guys, Night Monkey was obviously a low life copycat, Spider-Man would never wear a suit that hideous_ ," Flash says to his audience.

"Hey, I kinda liked the stealthy spy look," Ned says in his defense, looking up at Peter.

Peter snorts, "It _was_ kinda ugly, I mean, no offense to Fury, but the removable eye lenses weren't very efficient."

Peter sighs then, thinking about Fury, and the trip, and Beck. He fiddles with Tony's glasses where they're tucked into his shirt collar, feeling so foolish for giving them up so easily before.

"I really can't believe I fell for Beck's lies, I mean—Tony trusted _me_ with this responsibility and I just threw it onto the first guy I saw," Peter scoffs at himself, "He'd be so disappointed."

Ned grabs one of his hands, muting Flash's ranting, and shoving the rest of the candies away so he can snuggle up even closer to Peter.

"Hey, don't let a dude named Quentin, who probably played D&D once and stole the elementals for his projection monsters get into your head like this," Ned argues, "He's the egotistical dumbass taking advantage of a mourning teenager, it's absolutely not your fault Peter."

Peter sighs again, letting his head rest against Ned's soft shoulder. He covers his face with both his hands, muffling his groans, pitifully wishing the ground would just do him the favor of swallowing him whole right now.

"Thanks Ned," Peter replies, voice small and tired, "I just really wish I had Tony to talk to through all of that, even if he’d just yell at me one more time."

Ned puts an arm around Peter, resting his chin atop Peter's head and says, "I know, I wish you still had him too, but Peter, he trusted you with EDITH, and if he knew you were more than capable of being put in charge of literally thousands of drones and a whole wealth of new tech, then I think the only thing that he’d be more disappointed with is you focusing on your one mistake, than how you bravely took the charge to fix it by yourself."

Peter smiles sadly, thinking about Tony, taking in Ned's words, and maybe forgiving himself 5% more than he was allowing before.

He's still sixteen, he’d vanished for years of his life in The Blip, lost Tony in the fight against Thanos, and despite it all he’s still impossibly lucky to have May, Ned, Happy, and all the rest of the people in his life believe in him so much. It's terrifying and so _so_ kind, and Peter's eyes tear up for a moment reflecting on how much he loves them all.

Ned kisses Peter's head, and Peter looks up from his snuggled position to plant a sweet kiss back onto Ned's lips.

All the silly mistakes, and the disastrous trips around the world are worth it for this, for the people who matter the most, who he’ll do anything to keep safe.

"Hey Ned," Peter says after a while, still cuddled close, both of them back to watching Flash move onto reading more theories about Spider-Man, "How would you know that about the fake elemental monsters unless you played D&D yourself?"

There's a quiet moment, before Ned defensively says, "Pfft, okay whatever dude D&D is cool now, I won't be shamed."

Peter laughs smugly, "Show me your character right now you nerd, I know you have one."

Ned bites down on the embarrassed smile forming across his face, "Shut-up, he's a tiefling warlock named Bolt Goldshine and quite possibly the most badass dude I've ever made up in my head."

They spend the rest of the night, eating way too many tooth-achingly sweet candies while Peter watches Ned emphatically and passionately discuss all the lore and gory battle stories from his secret D&D campaign he’s played in a club at school for months now. Peter's constantly perplexed, but adoringly in love with his best friend.

And everything starts hurting a little less.

**Author's Note:**

> when i saw the elementals in the movie, my nerdy critical role stan brain went up in flames from all the d&d knowledge i've acquired from watching them play.
> 
> thank you for reading! i appreciate any and all feedback <3


End file.
